Today I’m going to share a bit of how my life has evolved. Back in 1998, my ten-year-old daughter came to me and she was worried. She wanted to work with wild animals when she grew up. But she was afraid that, by the time she grew up, there wouldn’t be any wild animals left.
I didn’t know what to say. I knew her fear was realistic. Wild spaces, and wild animals, are disappearing. So I said, "Let’s just do what we can to make sure that there are still wild animals somewhere when you grow up."
Now let’s flash forward to today. I’m a business person, and like many of you I’m concerned about what’s happening to the planet and to the people around us.
We have lived in a materialistic world for generations. The ethic of that world is, “Give me more! I deserve more! More of everything!” But that ethic is getting us into trouble. We’re using more of the planet’s resources than we can sustainably continue to use.
One thing we can do about that is to think about what we really need.
What is more important—having more things, or having better relationships with the people around you ... and having more time in nature?
Maybe if we had more love in our lives, we wouldn’t need so many things.
To help us think about that, Pollyanna Bush and I have written a song, which we will perform for you now.
[Jim performs song with Pollyanna's piano accompaniment]
May we all do everything we can to give a better and healthier world to our children.
© Jim Christiansen